As a wholly-owned non-profit subsidiary of the North Central Washington Economic Development District, Plug In North Central Washington (PINCW) has a mission to encourage adoption of plug in vehicles throughout the region. We do this through a combination of outreach, education, projects and programs.

One of our most recent programs revolves around PINCW acting as an entity to accept charitable donations towards the purchase of high amperage Level 2 (haL2) electric vehicle charging stations, providing planning support to help get them installed in strategically chosen locations in North Central Washington, and then providing the stations free of charge as a 3-year "lease" to businesses or organizations that would like to act as the caretakers of these stations for a set period of time.

Each haL2 station has an approximate retail value of $2,200. At the end of the lease period, the businesses/organization who contract with PINCW have the option of purchasing them or asking PINCW to remove them. As an all volunteer organization with limited resources, PINCW has no ability to assume liability for the charging stations during the term of the lease. Those responsibilities lay with the host businesses and/or organizations that choose to install them.

Essentially the haL2 program, through charitable donations, is providing a charging station free of charge to an organization that would otherwise have to spend $2,200 of its own money to obtain them. We are also providing expert technical resources regarding charging station equipment and installation. Everything else regarding the station will be up to the host organization as if they were to have purchased the station themselves. This includes installation, liability insurance, maintenance and other incidentals (see contract for details). At the end of the host contract (a "lease period," if you will) the host will be able to purchase the station for $500 (roughly a 75% discount on the original purchase) if they so desire. This essentially acts as a grant of $1,500 towards the purchase of a charging station.

The installation of a charging station can provide several benefits:

-Marketing: our region of the country/world has gotten coverage in national and international publications (e.g. Motor Trend, The New York Times, the Seattle Times and others) for our electric car charging infrastructure efforts. We are increasingly well known for being ahead of the curve. Tourists from Seattle and around the country are much more tuned in to businesses that show forward-thinking policies, such as installing charging stations.

-Increased business directly from electric car drivers: If you have a charging station electric car drivers will stop at your business above all others and will spend their money at your establishment. Seattle has one of the highest adoption rates of electric cars in the world, there are more than 10,000 of them there now. Most of them have the ability to drive over the passes using the already established high-speed charging corridor on US-2.

-Mentions in press releases and communications from PINCW: as part of the group of haL2 Hosts, you will benefit from mentions in all press releases on the topic of charging infrastructure.